This invention relates generally to rotary drums or coolers, and in particular to the spray tubing therein which conveys cooling water to the interior of the rotating drum. In the prior art, spray tubes are known but these tubes have been supported so as to rotate with the drum. In extremely long coolers or drums, 100 feet or more, the weight of the tube makes it mechanically impossible to support the tube in a rotary cooler. This is particularly true when, in addition to the length of the cooler, temperatures of the product within the cooler are initially at 2500.degree.F. Thus, the combination of the factors of length, weight and temperature combine to defeat the usual supporting arrangement for cooling tubes. Known arrangements for supporting spray tubes, such as rotating spider supports with central water cooled and lubricated bearings, present problems that affect product flow through the cooler, contamination of the product as it moves through the cooler and access for servicing. The steel frame or truss support is entirely too large and is also sensitive to the extremely high temperature of the material within the cooler and would require its own cooling system.
These known supporting arrangements offer no suggestions to solving the particular problem, and it is to solving this problem that the invention is directed and a solution provided.